Wood: grows throughout the entire time of its existence, expanding, growing, opening up to the world in all directions, its roots sinking into and penetrating the nourishing humus of the soil while at the same time growing outwards. New lives generated by itself, solid in its trunk but flexible, not rigid with a stable center of gravity like an oak but elastic to the impacts of the environment, like bamboo. It is considered the little Yang and the Liver Zang, emotional organ, and the Gall Bladder Fu and the related meridians are associated with it.
People most characterized by the Wood element are relational individuals: from their healthy nourishment from the Earth element they express patience, the ability to stay in the here and now, tolerance. A deficit of this element expresses anger, irritated impatience even towards themselves due to the impediment to expressing their intentions. The associated emotion is anger. In Wood’s disharmony, little rooting or solidity can be observed: in Bioenergetics one would say little ‘grounding’.
